Body-worn cameras to be mandatory for all police officers in Alberta, province says

Body-worn cameras will become mandatory for all police officers in Alberta, the provincial government announced Tuesday.

Mike Ellis, minister of public safety and emergency services, said the cameras will increase public trust in policing and help police review interactions.

"By documenting the behaviour of the police in public, collecting better evidence, and improving our approach to resolving complex complaints during investigations, [body-worn cameras] represent an objective measure to show what occurs in the moment," Ellis told a news conference.

The ministry will work with law enforcement agency partners on funding and logistics. A committee of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police (AACP) will be tasked with planning the rollout over the next few months.

Once the plan is implemented, Ellis said, all front-line officers in Alberta, including those who work for municipal police services and self-administered Indigenous police services, will have to wear the small cameras.

Ellis said Alberta will be the first province in Canada to mandate body-worn cameras.

The RCMP is working on a nationwide rollout of body-worn cameras and Alberta RCMP officers have been participating in field tests.

Body-worn cameras became mandatory for Calgary police officers in 2019.

"Several police agencies in the province are already on this path but we are looking forward to seeing the details of this mandate and how it will assist in standardizing our approach," said Dean LaGrange, chief of the Camrose Police Service and vice-president of the AACP.

The Edmonton Police Service tested the technology about a decade ago, finding that it was "unproven" and came with significant data management issues and costs.

The EPS pilot found no quantitative evidence that the cameras had an effect on complaints, nor evidence the cameras led to a reduction in use-of-force incidents. The technology did help speed up complaint investigations, however. 

EPS Chief Dale McFee said he wholeheartedly supports the use of body-worn cameras across the province. More research has been done since the pilot in Edmonton, he said.

A report on body-worn camera use in Calgary found the number of use-of-force incidents declined the year after the cameras were brought in. Internal and external complaints against police officers increased slightly, but complaint resolution time was reduced by half.

Shawn King, a defence lawyer and vice-president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, said footage from body-worn cameras could corroborate testimony given in court and potentially shorten trials.